Some Very Dubious Wolves Opinion to Go With Past Villa Failings

The below heads-up to Media Muppetary was sent in to MOMS a while ago, but we thought we’d save it for a ‘look back on 2017’ laugh.

Opinions are like ar…..

We’ve already discussed in a previous Media Muppets column some of Birmingham Mail Audience Development Editor for Football, Steve Wollaston’s dubious opinion pieces on Aston Villa, which are seemingly based on nothing more than gut feeling…

It seems these pearls of wisdom though are not exclusive to Villa.

Lambo vs Super Agent

Here’s an opinion ditty he did at the end of last season regarding Wolves.

While admittedly it was hard to predict Wolves spectacular turnaround this season, it was always pretty clear who could potentially influence it and who wouldn’t.

Headline

Opinion: Why Paul Lambert is way more important to Wolves than Jorge Mendes.

Steve Wollaston believes it would be a disaster for Wolves to part company with Paul Lambert at this stage.

Spiel

The rumours that Paul Lambert is considering his position at Molineux should have every Wolves fans scratching their heads in disbelief.

If it happens, it is a disaster for a club trying to regain some composure after yet another period of erratic instability.

His troubled and well-documented spell at Villa was a marriage made in hell, and he was forced at times to take the fall for a hierarchy who were steering the club in all kinds of wrong directions.

Blah, blah, blah…

Lambert is willing to work with Jorge Mendes, make no mistake about that, this is a man who can bring in players like Helder Costa

He is also a man who can bring in the array of dross, players that Lambert is having to try and ship out.

Is that enough though to justify the obvious damage that the foreign implosion actually did at Molineux?

Lambert knows the value of Ben Marshall and Andi Weimann, he knows more of these players are needed throughout the team in order to slowly rebuild this Wolves team.

Another batch would destabilize the progress Lambert has made since taking over.

Wolves don’t have a team anywhere near capable of competing for Championship honours.

Now I am saying that it would be tantamount to disaster if they let him [Paul Lambert] leave now.

There is no doubt in my mind that when the 2017-2018 season kicks off, Wolves will be in a very strong position to challenge for promotion.

That will only happen with, Paul Lambert.

Not with a yes man with no Championship credentials.

Evaluation

Haha

2. It happened (Lambert leaving), but it was far, far from the predicted ‘disaster’. If you haven’t noticed, Wolves are running away with the Championship title at the moment.

3. This isn’t necessary a case of having the luxury of hindsight to question the judgement in this opinion. No sir, this gentleman was at the Birmingham Mail during Paul Lambert’s reign at Villa, so he should be up to speed on the managerial nuances of Lambo…

4. MOMS doesn’t buy this ‘poor Lambert was hard done by Lerner’ narrative. Put it this way, he got a better deal than Remi Garde. Yes, he didn’t have the blank chequebook of Martin O’Neill, but he did have money to spend, but the inconsistency in his style of play and selection policy ‘to bomb squad or not to bomb squad’ didn’t help.

Plus, he benefited from the patience of Villa supporters, who ultimately gave him a fair crack.

We’ve written about Lambert enough and when he left Villa, it wasn’t as if he was guaranteed to be a big success in his next job.

4.There is a trend for some domestic pundits and journalists to take a knee jerk aversion to ‘Johnny Foreigner’ due to their lack of knowledge of the unknown and the fallacy that ‘British is Best’.

Lets remind ourselves that Jorge Mendes is the super agent who’s clients include Cristiano Ronaldo, David de Gea, Diego Costa, James Rodríguez, and José Mourinho.

Wolves hit pay dirt through their association with him and his network, if mined rightly, it would give them a big advantage over their Championship rivals.

5. Lambert knows the value of Weimann… ‘he knows more of these players are needed throughout the team in order to slowly rebuild this Wolves team’. More Weimann’s needed? Please, you’re killing me!

6. After Mendes was installed by the new owners of the club in 2016 as the agent of the club, he’s been central to bringing in players that would normally be out of the reach of a Championship club. Including his young talented Portuguese countrymen, Ivan Cavaleir, Rúben Neveso, Roderick Miranda, Hélder Costa and Diogo Jota. And lets not forget Brazilian top scorer Léo Bonatini.

Meanwhile, Villa have had to rely on Steve Bruce’s old boys network getting in John Terry and his son’s mate Glenn Whelan.

The fact that Wolves’ current manager Nuno Espírito Santo (a ‘yes man with no Championship credentials’?) is Mendes’ first ever client, pretty much rubber stamps the ‘super agents’ influence on why Wolves have suddenly turned into top dogs in the division.

2 COMMENTS

Great stuff. If the newspaper industry is going to survive (and personally I hope it does. There is still a place in todays media connected, social media world, for good investigative journalism, and intelligent feature pieces) then the Birmingham Mail is doing everything it can to sabotage my hope.

Code: 3Retro10 for 10% off

My Old Man Said (MOMS) is an award-winning football blog & podcast. MOMS is also on the National Council of the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) and has been to Parliament, the Premier League offices and beyond in addressing supporter issues. UTV

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here:
Cookie Policy